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Taxes on annuity earnings? Are you kidding me?

02-27-2010 by Colleen King

Why is an ‘insurance person’ writing about a tax issue? When it comes to annuities, it may end up connected if the President has his way. Unfortunately.

An article in Investment News by Dan Jamieson on February 22 indicates that President Obama wants to have the 2.9% Medicare tax apply now to unearned income. This will hit more than just annuities, this will also affect other forms of unearned income you may be more familiar with–dividends, rents, royalties and interest on individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000.

Is nothing sacred? Annuities, particularly fixed or indexed annuities, are a good way for people to go when looking for a conservative option to put money away. I’m assuming that if you are using an annuity for an IRA of some sort this wouldn’t apply. One reason many financial planners don’t use annuities for IRAs is the presumption that the fees and restrictions associated with annuities aren’t worth it. (There are many with no fees, by the way.) But there are fees generally with most options, aren’t there? Trading fees, etc?

Money in an annuity currently grows tax deferred, whether it’s set up as an IRA or not. This money needs to sit and grow particularly for folks planning on using this for retirement living. If they are a high wage earner now, this can eat into the growth of a non IRA annuity.

Share this with a friend, not just the annuity part, because people need to know what else is going to be affected by this proposal. Seems like someone needs to look at ways to cut spending, but maybe there’s just something I’m missing.